Espetus San Mateo — Restaurant in San Mateo

I've been coming here for years with a group of friends of ours and decided to have our parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration here. They wanted to go to something simple and the idea of going to another seafood Chinese restaurant was offensive to me because we had been to exactly that kind of food our past two settings with them pre new years. A 50th year anniversary needs to be celebrated and a notable fashion and Brazilian barbecue in the atmosphere that Espetus is able to provide is a worthy option. Espetus is located in downtown San Mateo, near several famous ramen shops that you may have heard of. It looks small from the outside but the interior has quite a bit of room and a good amount of seating, but the spacing between the tables is pretty thin. They were able to set up a wide row table for us so that everybody in the party could be sitting at the same table and it works. However, those sitting in the back row may not have much room to move. The dining room is elegant, albeit crowded and the servers are attentive. It is one of the best customer service restaurants I've ever been to where, despite the volume of people that move through the venue, they are very responsive and very helpful. Their demeanor seems genuine and you really feel taken care of. Here. The food is good. Everything they have is very good quality. My only complaint would be that the pork belly was on the dry side. I typically don't go to the salad bar at a Brazilian barbecue, however, on this day in order to even get a plate, you've got to go to the cell bar first as they don't appear to provide plates at the sitting to start. Start. I will say their bar did look very good and had options other than meats as well as fishes and other main fare so you don't have to participate in the meat if you absolutely don't want to. How special I believe is garlic sirloin sliced thin. And it is very good with a strong garlic flavor. Other meats on swords includes chicken, wrapped bacon, pork belly, filet, mignon, pork ribs, chicken hearts, etc. We also ordered a battery of desserts, all of which were quite good and satisfying. We had a party of 17 but note that if you have a party of 20 or more you will have to engage in a contract with them which has strict rules around how they are paid. How many people are coming? How you can modify those numbers and how much you have to pay up front. This is understandable, especially since they are a busy venue and bailing out on them could become a significant business risk. I recommend this restaurant. The price is fair for what they're offering and the amount of customer service they are giving you, and you will feel like a king or a queen and they will take care of you and your party. Note that parking could be a bit dicey so come early and don't be late because reservations are for a 2-hour window and they are very firm on this so be on time. Be early and be prepared to leave when your 2...

We had a table of 12 which grew to 14 and they were able to accommodate us, though it took awhile to get our tables ready.

Drinks were promised as we sat, yet orders not taken a half hour later, I think they were just short staffed, it happens. We eventually got them all. Water was plentiful before that. Service was friendly otherwise.

For the meal, I was able to sample 5 different meats, and noticed there was pineapple and a salad bar along with puffy little cheese bread.

Really, I'm a carnivore and though the other stuff looked tasty for those who like veggies and such, I could get a salad bar anywhere. I came for meat.

I'm not sure why we didn't get a better selection, it was lunch hour about 1 pm so maybe they ran out of shrimp, filets, lamb and other offerings? We had 2 kinds of meat, chicken hearts, pork butt, sausage came by once.

I'd try them again at dinner time if they guarantee the 12-14 meats will come. The website speaks of it but didn't go into great detail. Sounds interesting!

The best: Picanha was absolutely perfect, rare with the right amount of blood dripping. The rest was hit or miss, some overcooked, some undercooked. I probably ate the equivalent of a 7oz steak over the hour and a half we were there. Each cut was indeed great even if not cooked the best in every way. I can be a tougher critic at these prices.

Usually at Brazilian steakhouses in Brazil you have 2 coins, one for food and one for drink, but here in USA surprisingly, many have drinks as extra. Also the pretty restaurant had an air of being upscale.. So, no open fire grill where you see them butchering the meat and then BBQ it in front of you, maybe it's a health thing in California? I don't know. I miss that, it's part of the experience.

Sodas were samplers, I've never seen such small bottles before. Again it could be for artistic value. I laughed because I am not a soda person, I had a Chimay red beer which was proper size in the right glass, and it paired well with the meat. I had to pour it myself, hmm.

Parking here is atrocious as they were working on the street and there was a big truck parked in front, everyone had to park a block or two away. Not the restaurant's fault but the city should be more considerate.

Dessert selection was small but each of the choices were quite good. They also had an extensive coffee menu with or without booze.

This could have been a 5 star experience, yet because of slowness, price and smaller selection, I had to drop two stars. I'd come again for dinner and bring friends who speak fluent Portuguese. Would like to see the Espetus people rave about...

This is a review I wrote in 2018…

Nice place to lunch and dine? Yes Ambience: Great. All other comments here: I totally agree with.

I will tell you my personal experience:

The Gaucho style personnel serving, are always extremely focused specially in LARGE GROUPS which they take good care of most of the time to the point that they come about your table but then SKIP IT sometimes (the meats are going to the large groups) leaving us waiting until the next meat is coming out of the kitchen. And if they do come, you just get raw meat, therefore you just wait again, and again. I had quite some good times.

The HOST LADIES are really nice and attentive making you feel great with their personal and unique WELCOMING. Unfortunately, just like the Gauchos they also loose focus on smaller groups of FOUR OR LESS people. I’d rather say they don’t even bother looking over their shoulders to see whether small groups need assistance forcing us the customers, to step up and out of the table, and walk towards themselves to ask for additional help because they won’t do what they are supposed to.

Even I remember once asking the Guy refilling water to bring us additional cheese-bread because no one cared to come or even look. How impressive!!!

The Manager/Owner: Quite a nice person.

We have been coming to this establishment in San Mateo for the past three years plus, and quite more often recently. My family and I, were almost regulars. The last few times we have done this traveling all the way from Sunnyvale (25 min.) and arriving at around 1:35pm each time every week without any problems. We didn’t care until the last time we arrived at 1:35pm and one of the Gauchos servers came out to the door and refrained us from entering the establishment stating that they are closing earlier because THERE WERE NO CUSTOMERS at this time. SERIOUSLY? So what are we? What were they looking at when we showed up? Besides, there were at least another 5 tables full of multiple customers which were already there eating and who knows for how long. I must assume that some of the staff are not that happy having to come to certain tables more than to others. Therefore we have decided this was going to be the last time we would come to this Espetus place. We now found another place closer and where we are treated with dignity and as real regulars where they appreciate our...